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Monthly Archives: April 2013

I don’t blame people who can’t remember who I am, my name, my face, my deeds or anything about me at all even when we sort of knew each other before. In fact, I empathize with them because I often get into such similar awkward situations myself.

It’s embarrassing and frustrating but, let’s face it: it is a fact of life that we do forget. The realities of life is such that we tend to forget when we move on from one phase to another where circumstances change requiring adjusting to new tasks, new priorities and also new people in our lives.

When this happens, the people that we once knew slowly fade away in the back burner of our minds and gradually we ‘forget’ about them.

However, there are some exceptions to this theory of human behaviors as there are some special people in this world who do not easily forget others even when they have moved on in their lives. They are simply extraordinary when it comes to remembering others and most of all are still grateful to others.

One such person whom I truly admire for this amazing godly virtue is an ex-staff of mine, Gregg Chew. He not only still remembers me but is grateful to me. Even though I have left the company that we had been part of for more than 12 years now, he still, without fail, buys me a meal on my birthday every year. It’s not the free meal that’s important to me but his deeds of doing this that says so much about this fine gentleman.

So why does he do this for me? I don’t exactly know; it could be that I recruited him, gave him tours to run as a tour manager or something more that I did for him that I’m not aware of. But is that very special? I don’t know as I did the same for hundreds of others as well when I was the HR Director of the company then.

Indeed, Gregg is special in this sense because with his ‘appreciative eyes’, he seems to feel the impact of what I did for him perhaps more than some others.

The wonderful thing about Gregg is he is also doing the same for many other people in his life for he seems to be grateful to them as well. He is the ‘chief architect’ when it comes to their birthdays and other special occasions. Not only this, he goes 3 steps further by doing the same for the poor, old and destitute – people he does not even know! He makes it a point every year to put together a busload of like-minded friends to visit and cheer these unfortunate people with goodies, donations and entertainment.

I try to get into the minds and hearts of grateful people like Gregg to deeply understand why they have such spiritual values of appreciation and gratitude. Certainly, they have a strong connection with their inner selves more than many. When people can tap into their inner selves, it means that they are connected with their spirits who humble them to be thankful for what they get in both small and big things in their lives. They don’t take full credit for getting them through their own efforts but count their blessings for they believe that a higher spiritual being make this possible for them. So people like Gregg feels duty bound to extend their blessings to others.

The wonderful about giving others is getting them back as well. This is why people like Gregg are pretty successful, happy and fulfilled. As for Gregg, he is one of the best tour managers the travel industry can ever have. In his personal life he lives a simple but abundant life too, more so now with his loving son, Sean, who makes it even more meaningful and purposeful.

Indeed the world needs more people like Gregg. I am glad our paths crossed. He is my learning lesson on gratitude and appreciation too. Indeed his great deeds are an inspiration to me and others as well. I pray that I meet more ‘Greggs’ in the remaining part of my life journey.

Do you have similar stories of special people like Gregg to share too?